QXO Inc (QXO) Quote

QXO, Inc. (NASDAQ:QXO) was until recently a small-cap software company called SilverSun Technologies. This changed late in 2023 when serial entrepreneur/M&A investor Brad Jacobs announced an investment of $1B into the company through a pipe transaction, which included other investors including Sequoia Heritage. This initial investment was followed by two additional investments into the company, once for $3.5B in June 2024 and a second follow-on for $620m in July 2024, which included $150m from Affinity Partners. This left the company with over $5B in cash and firmly in the hands of Mr. Jacobs for his next business foray, which was to consolidate the $800B building products distribution industry using QXO as the vehicle.

The shares went on a wild ride from the date of the initial announcement in December 2023 through to the additional investment news as speculators drove the stock up over $200 per share. Some of this was due to the lack of float available to trade even while this material news was being announced. Shares have now settled in the $15 per share range, giving the company a market cap of $6.2B. Net of the cash on hand, QXO is sitting with an enterprise value of $1.2B. The question is what do current investors get for

QXO announced itself with a somewhat atypical deal by putting together a large offer of $9.4B for French company Rexel (OTCPK:RXLSF). This represented a premium of 24.5% over recently traded shares, which valued the company at 6.5X EBITDA. Now, Rexel rejected this, but this sets the precedent that Jacobs is not looking to overpay. A 6.5x multiple for a public company would have allowed a lot of value add to be gained through the QXO management team. I would guess this would also be an upper bound on what multiple they would likely to pay; private company multiples will be much lower. There is also the possibility that other acquisitions are bought based off trough earnings at an even greater discount.

The Value Proposition
The upside for investors can be illustrated by the current multiples of companies that Jacobs et al. have already built:

QXO under $25

qxo Rexel confirms it has received earlier this week an unsolicited, non-binding preliminary proposal from QXO regarding a potential acquisition of Rexel at an indicative price of €28.00 to €28.40 per share.

Rexel’s Board of Directors has reviewed the proposal in detail and has unanimously decided not to pursue it, considering that it significantly undervalues the company and does not reflect its value creation potential through its Power Up 25 strategic plan. The Board of Directors remains highly confident in Rexel’s management to deliver the mid-term objectives presented in during the June 2024 Capital Markets Day. Indeed, Rexel’s management team has successfully demonstrated over the last few years its ability to increase the company’s underlying profitability and enhance its growth profile in an accelerating electrification world.